Heart of Gold
by Kirbydash2001
Summary: Rose is a lonely 10 year old girl that lives by herself in a small wooden house near a forest. One day when she desides to go out mob hunting in the forest at night, she comes across an enderman who doesn't attack her. What is going on with this enderman?


The full moon shone brightly above the nighttime world. It's reflection shimmered on the surface of the lake just behind my house. The animals all slept peacefully beneath the sky that was littered with stars. It seemed like a pretty nice night. But I could tell that there was something weird going on. I just in my bones that something creepy was going to happen. I was simply sitting on my roof, enjoying the beautiful night when it allstarted.

I couldn't imagine going to sleep. I was so not tired. So I decided to go out and kill some mobs. Yes, you just heard that. Killing. Mobs. That might sound kinda weird, and now you probably have some mixed emotions toward me. But that kinda thing is just what people of our kind do. It's not uncommon for a person to wander out by themselves at night with a sword or something and go and fight a zombie or a skeleton for an activity of sorts. So don't blame me, saying "oh Rose, it's too dangerous for a 10 year old girl to go mob hunting by herself at night!", 'cause I lived on my own. If I can do that and survive, then I can fight mobs. I'd done it before, so why couldn't I do it again?

I pulled myself up and wiped the dust and debris off my jeans. My pink and white sneakers made a light _tap-tap-tap _sound on the wood roof as I walked to the edge and climbed down. The door of my small but quaint house opened as I pulled the lever, and closed as I pulled the matching one from inside. I walked slowly toward the crafting table in the corner of the room which held my iron sword on its top. It wasn't the strongest sword you could possibly craft, but it was all I had, and it was what I had always used. I stretched out my arm and picked it up. It was so old. My father had given this old thing to me to use on our first mob hunt together when I was just 7. Now it was my only weapon, and my only memory of my dad.

I had a memory of my mom, too. A golden locket, shaped like a heart, which I pulled out from under my pink shirt. I flipped the top open and looked at the picture of me and my mother and father. Flipping it shut, I turned it over and read the letters engraved on the back. _Gale Belle Lilywood _it read in fancy cursive letters. _Wish me luck, mom and dad. _I prayed as a clutched the locket. Determined now, I grabbed my sword and set off to find some mobs.

As I got further from my house, the light from it faded, and I was now guided plainly by the glow of the full moon. Also, I was a bit surprised that I hadn't come across any mobs yet. By the time you got this far away from any human creation at this time of night, you were sure to have come across at least 5 zombies. But there were none in sight. I was getting a little scared now. Why in the world weren't there any mobs around? In a way, I was happy about it, but then in a completely different one, I was sorta freaking out. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Then all of a sudden, a pack of wild wolves came storming out of the trees straight towards me! But... It didn't look like they wanted to attack. They were whimpering, and running _away._Even so, one of them was so terrified, it looked like, that it slammed straight into the side of my leg, knocking us both over. The wolf scrabbled on the ground before getting a paw hold and scrambling up. As it finally got to its feet, it whined and whimpered as it bolted after the rest of its pack. Wolves were never scared enough to run away. And another thing that scared me about it was that when that one wolf hit me, he should have gotten furious, and he and his pack would turn around and attack me. But not this time...

My head was spinning with fear and pain now. I bent my arm and prepared to push myself up and head for home... But my body froze when I heard the most freaky distorted sound right next to me. My heart pounded so fast in my chest I thought it was going to burst out. I knew this sound. This was the sound of the most terrifying thing to ever come across. The most fearsome mob you could find apart from Herobrine. I forced my head to turn slightly. And yes, there a few feet away from me were two slender black legs. I nearly suffocated trying to hold back my buckets of tears that just wanted to explode out of me. This was an enderman.

Oh my gosh, I don't know how long I stayed there paralyzed on the ground, but if there was one thing everybody knew, it was to **NEVER** look at the upper part of an enderman. I was so scared that I would have been a-ok with simply dying right then and there. No, scared isn't the right word to use here. I was TERRIFIED. Ever had that feeling that you're so scared your heart wants to jump straight out your mouth, and you just want to scream and bawl your eyes out at the same time? Well this was worse. Much, much worse.

_Stay calm,_ I tried to tell myself, but it didn't help. I still felt like exploding. The enderman made another sound. My insides freaked out again and a shiver went up and down my spine. _Oh Lord, help me now. _I prayed over and over again in my head. Just before I squeezed my eyes shut, I noticed a bandage wrapped around the enderman's lower right leg. _Why is that that there...?_ I wondered. But before I could even start to calm down, it made another noise, and I proceeded in cowering on the ground. I could tell that it was looking right at me.

As I stayed there for a while longer, I started to come up with a plan to get away. First I was considering distracting it by throwing a rock or something, but then I realized that would be stupid in a number of ways, such as, _it could see me, I would make too much noise trying to get up, it might attack me,... _Then I narrowed it down to plainly thrusting myself up and running for home. I tried to calm myself down inside a bit before tensing my muscles. _Well, here I go. If I die, I die. Might as well take the chance..._

My arms pushed up, and the only command that I could fit into my overwhelmed mind was _run._ I wasn't calm enough, I guess. This may sound like a silly mistake, but I tripped and summer saluted over a few times before landing on my back. Big _WHOOPS._ I was staring straight into the eyes of the enderman. By instinct, its jaw dropped and it let out a staticky screech. My heart skipped a few long beats and nearly stopped. My brain clogged. My feet... Well, I wasn't really aware of what my body was doing mainly because of a half heart attack, being in a state of sheer terror and my mind completely paralyzed. But I was 65% sure I was running fast as lightning back home.

When I got there my heart was beating like crazy. I opened my door, bolted inside, shut it, and pressed my back to it. I started to walk slowly towards my bed. Don't ask why, I didn't have control over what I was doing at that _particular _moment, mind you. But as far as I could tell, the enderman hadn't, and wasn't, following me. I suppose you could say I was safe. When I got next to my bed, I stopped, moaned wearily, and collapsed onto it.

My eyes opened slowly, and I sat up, clutching my spinning head. As I focused, I saw that there was faint light coming in my window. I had been so foolish as to pass out when I could have been being followed by an enderman! I couldn't believe myself. I'd never done anything that stupid before. I got up dizzily, and stumbled a bit on my way to the door. Upon reaching it, I pulled the lever and pushed the door open. I should have been way more paranoid than I was acting considering I'd almost been killed by an enderman last night, but I _had_ calmed down a lot.

By the amount of light, and there being no sun yet, I could tell it was probably just before dawn. Even the small bit of light that filtered from beyond the hills was comforting from last night's experience. Gosh, I was sure I'd never go anywhere again without having that weird feeling I was being watched. It was very calm now, though. a nice peaceful morning, if you ask me.

I walked out a bit on the cool, dewy grass. Mornings always seemed to calm me down. Until my vision came to rest a little ways away and I froze. I was staring at the enderman again. This time, it didn't screech as it should have. It just kept calmly staring straight into my eyes. I swallowed nervously, but didn't break the stare, as that was said to be another way to provoke it. After a moment, the rising sun began to reach the enderman. It looked down to see the light only a few blocks away from it, and teleported away with one last glance at me. _That was... weird... _I thought. _Endermen never act like that..._

Confused, I began walking back to my house. The rest of the day went quick. I could almost see the sun going across the sky faster from the top of my roof. I went about my day normally, despite the second enderman sighting that morning. This whole thing was getting weirder, though. I had encountered the same enderman twice now, and it hadn't hurt me either time. What was this one up to? All mobs usually attacked... But not this one.

I flickered my eyes open. Shoving the blanket off, I sat up and hung my legs over the edge. And what did I see out the window. Yes, again the enderman was roaming near my house. It wasn't facing my way, but I could tell by that bandage that it was the same one that I had come across the other two times, again. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about this guy. On the one hand, it was an _enderman. _No one has ever encountered an enderman who was nice. But then on the other hand, he had never attacked _me. _I didn't really consider that _mean._

So after lots of debate, I decided to try to approach it. I tried to pull the lever quietly and slowly to unlatch the door. After I had successfully pulled the lever all the way down and back up, I pushed the door open. The enderman hadn't seemed to notice me yet. So I started to calmly walk over to it. Well, calmly on the outside. My ego still wasn't quite so sure about this idea. As I got a little closer, the enderman's head tilted up a bit. I could tell it knew I was there.

As it turned around to look down at me, I lowered my head and stared nervously at the ground. At least now I couldn't provoke it. The enderman made a gentle gurgle noise, and took a step toward me. Alright, now comes the part when I do something that the audience thinks is stupid, right? Well, I guess you could consider it that. But to me, it wasn't stupid at all. This amazing story wouldn't have turned out the way it had if I didn't do this. So I looked up at the enderman's face. It stared right back at me with soft purple eyes. It really didn't look like much of a terribly evil mob at that moment. It actually looked sort of sweet.

After a minute, it started to walk the other way. I took a step after it, but hesitated, then pulled myself back to standing where I was before. When it got a few blocks away, it stopped and glanced back over its shoulder at me. It was almost as if it wanted me to follow it... I held back a few seconds, then started to walk toward it. As it saw this, the enderman turned back around and continued leading me across the grass. Sure, it felt a little weird to be led somewhere by one of the most fearsome mobs, but I did it anyways.

As we were walking, I noticed that the enderman had a very slight limp on its hurt leg. _What happened there?_ I wondered. _How did it get hurt?_ I almost felt bad for the poor thing. Another thing I shouldn't be feeling. Why was I so soft-hearted?

After a while, the enderman stopped. I did the same, noticing where we had ended up. We were standing in front of a cave entrance. I was starting to wonder why the enderman was taking me here. What was so cool about this? _Or maybe..._ My thoughts were answered as the enderman entered the cave. There was something _inside_ it that it wanted me to see. Now that made more sense. I followed it, jumping over the randomly placed blocks as I went. But now as we got further in, I stopped. It was too dark for me to see down here.

Just as I was starting to freak out, the enderman made it a little worse by placing its hand on my shoulder, which sent shivers up my spine. Then I started to realize that it was trying to help me by gently pulling my sleeve to guide me in the dark. So I took careful steps as I went along the path that the enderman was trying to show me. After a while of walking in the black tunnels, it stopped me, hand still on my shoulder. Now there was a bit of light ahead of us, that looked like the sort of color that came from torches. I could just see the enderman's silhouette in front of me, its glowing purple eyes looking back at me. It emitted a small sound, that would have been a calm murmur if it could talk.

Slowly, it let go of me and began to walk toward the small, lit opening. I hesitated before following. I couldn't believe the sight that met my eyes as I entered the cavern. The room did have a few torches on the stone walls, and the there were endermen- wounded endermen- sitting on small stone mounds throughout the place. Some of them looked at me with frightened looks on their faces and cowered back, while others just kept nursing their wounds. Some wrapped bandages around others or themselves, and another one I saw putting some type of paste, or medicine, I guessed, on a arm wound. I didn't quite know how to respond to this at first. But it was sorta sad. Why were all these endermen so hurt?

I was so busy looking around that I hadn't even noticed that the first enderman had walked away, and was now coming back with something in its hand. I turned and looked at it. It stopped in front of me and handed me the item. It was my sword; I must have dropped it during that first encounter when I ran home. I hadn't even noticed it was missing until now. Carefully, I took the iron sword from its hand. "Thank you." I murmured. That had been my first words in 2 years. Ever since my parents disappeared, I hadn't needed to talk. So I just hadn't. But now there was someone here to use my voice to. And it felt really good.

I looked back up at its face. I really wasn't scared of this guy anymore. "What is this place?" I asked it. The enderman made a few gurgly sounds, also doing a few small gestures with its hands. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." I told it. I could tell by the look in it's eyes that it was a little disappointed, but it nodded it's head. Turning around, it started to walk back over to the tunnel we had come from. Looking back at me, it jerked its head toward the opening, signaling for me to follow. And of course I did, taking light, careful footsteps, as to not set off the other enderman in the cave.

We were going back the same way we had come, therefore I thought we might have been heading back out of the cave. But before we even got halfway back, the enderman turned down a different tunnel. I stopped, thinking I had lost it. Then I saw its glowing purple eyes to my right. It sorta freaked me out until I remembered who it was that the eyes belonged to. I went over to it slowly, not being able to see, and all. Once I got next to it, it put its hand on my shoulder again, and kept guiding me down.

Soon, we hit another dim lit cave entrance. This time, the opening was two blocks high, and the enderman had to duck to get through it. I followed it through, and almost yelped when I saw what populated this small cave. There were creepers mingling throughout the area, communicating with light hissing sounds. These didn't look hurt like the endermen did. They actually looked sorta careless, like they didn't even have the slightest worry that a human could easily find their cave and attack them until only gunpowder remained.

In front of me, the enderman made one of its communication noises. A few of the creepers looked at us with confused looks on their faces, but one made a slight jump and turned toward it. This one creeper that had seemed to have recognized the enderman's calling came over to us and made some hissing noises to it. The enderman responded, his sequence longer than the creeper's. the creeper nodded with another hiss, and led the way into another cave off of the large creeper one. Me and the enderman followed.

Once we got into the smaller room that looked like it had been made by the creepers, or possibly even humans, something happened that I never would have expected. "Hello there, human." Said the creeper in a hissy sort of lisp. I sort of jumped back. I really wasn't counting on this day to get any stranger, but now a creeper was talking to me. "Hi..." I responded slowly. The creeper spoke again. "So, Jaiden here is your friend?" Jaiden was the enderman's name? _Hmph. Good to know..._ "Um, I believe so." I said, hoping my tone wasn't sounding _too_ weird. The creeper did this sort of strange smile-frown thing. "We'll, glad to meet you, missssss... Um, what'sss your name, again?" I tried to look a little smiley, too. "Rose. My name is Rose. What's yours?" The creeper's smile grew, and he tried to straighten up as much as he could. "My name is Rufusssssss." He said happily, with an enthusiastic hiss at the end.

Jaiden rolled his eyes and nudged Rufus's side. The creeper jumped, remembering what he had been asked to do. "Jaiden here wantssss me to transsslate hisss words so you can underssstand him." He said, still a little smile on a his face. Jaiden made a series of sounds behind Rufus. Rufus translated as soon as the sequence ended. "He sssaysss that that plassse that you and him were jussst in wass the cave of the endermen. It'sss where what'sss left of his tribe live in, what they try to make, peassse." He explained. That part made more sense now.

"But what was with all the wounds? Did your tribe get into a fight?" I asked. Jaiden made some more sounds. "He sssaysss that endermen are a popular target right now, mainly becaussse of their pearlsss that are needed to get to The End realm." Rufus said with a tinge of confusion. After he'd finished translating, he turned around and hissed a few times to Jaden. He responded with some of his own noises. After a few seconds of silence, Rufus turned back toward me. The creeper wasn't looking so smiley now, and he shot a sort of worried glance back at Jaiden, who gurgled again, which made Rufus respond with a slow nod.

"Sssorry, Rossse, I was just asssking Jaiden a few questionsss, that'sss all. No worriesss." He said slowly, as if he were somehow worried, or lost in thought. He shook his head. "Ok, back to transsslationsss." He said, back to his normal voice. I thought about what he had said. The endermen were a popular target, now? "Hey, if the endermen are such a popular target, like you said, then maybe I could help you, somehow." I said, enthusiastically. The two mobs glanced at each other. "Yeah, like maybe I could help defend you. I have a sword." I suggested as I held up my old weapon.

Rufus blinked. "Well, we could never turn down protecssshun, right, Jaiden?" He said, a bit of smile returning to his face. Jaiden's eyes got warmer as he nodded and made another gurgle. Rufus smiled hugely. "Jaiden says ok, and thanks." He said in a happy voice. Before that day, I would have never known creepers could be happy, or even smile. But, apparently, they could. Another weird moment for me, I guess.

Jaiden gurgled again. Rufus listened, then turned back to me. "Jaiden can sssenssse that night isss falling. The humansss will be after his kind, sssoon." He said, worry and fear entering his voice. I readied my sword. "Well, then, I guess we have some scaring to do, don't we?" I said in a meanacing tone. Rufus smiled, determination in his dark eyes. "Yeah! Time to ssshow thossse humansss who're the _real_ bosssesss of thisss land!" He exclaimed.

I polished my sword on my shirt for about the third time. Me, Jaiden and Rufus had been hiding just outside the cave behind some overhanging vines since the sky had started to get orange. I had enjoyed watching the sunset, but now it was dark, and the moon was only a sliver. Getting bored and thinking the humans might not even be coming, I looked up at Jaiden. His glowing purple eyes just stared out calmly at the dark forest in front of us. I let the air out of my nose and did the same. I heard Rufus's four feet pacing back and forth on the grass behind me; I could tell that he wasn't exactly entertained, either. I looked back at him, and, seeing me out of the corner of his eye, he stopped pacing and raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged as a silent response.

**CRACK! **Both of our heads whipped back to look at the forest, seeing Jaiden tense in front of us. About three two-block-tall figures were approaching through the trees. I could easily tell by the way they looked and how they walked that they were humans. As they came out of the shadows, I could see that one had a diamond sword, another had a gold axe, and the third a bow and about seven arrows in a quiver on his back. All together, there were what looked like two teenage boys and one of them's girlfriend.

Rufus quickly but quietly came up to the vines beside me to see better. His eyes were wide, and sort of scared. I assumed that he'd never really been in this sort of situation before. Jaiden, on the other hand, had fierce, narrow eyes, and a deep, quiet growl came from his throat. The three humans kept moving toward the cave. As they got close, I knew I had to do something to protect my friend's home and family.

I didn't quite have time to think it over very well, so don't think bad of me if you would have done something 'smarter'. So, I pushed my way out from behind the vines, a soft, surprised hiss coming from Rufus. I dashed in between the teenagers and the cave mouth, just meaning to stop them and maybe talk them into going somewhere else, but all three of them froze. Before I could even turn toward them, the the boy with the bow and arrows was already loading his weapon and preparing to fire it at me.

It seemed like time was in slow motion as the arrow was released. My heart probably stopped for the entire time it was in the air. I didn't even have enough time to do more than squeeze my eyes shut before the arrow hit. But I didn't even feel it. It should have hit me by now. Had it missed? I got my answer as I opened my eyes. Jaiden was standing with his arms out in front of me. A few seconds went by the same way, until his legs wobbled, and he stumbled weakly sideways, falling to the ground. He had intercepted the shot, and the arrow had hit him sqarely in the chest.

All I could do was gasp. I stared, shocked, down at Jaiden before looking up at the group of teenagers. We just stood there for a few seconds, jaws hanging open. I was just about to yell at them, when Rufus bounded up and moved threateningly toward them, giving off the warning hiss. The group snapped out of their frozen state and stumbled over each other, trying to get away. After they had been driven into the forest, Rufus turned around and looked at me sadly. The creeper had seen everything.

He walked slowly to my side, and we both looked down at the enderman on the ground. Jaiden made sort of a groaning cough sound, and weakly put his hand on his chest to see where the arrow was. It hurt to think that this meant he could barely feel it because of the pain. I knelt down next to him. "Jaiden, please don't go..." I said, my voice cracking. His eyes were only slits, and his breathing was shallow. Rufus took a few steps forward, tears about to spill out of his eyes. "Pleassse don't leave usss, friend..." He choked. "We would misss you ssso much."

I was on the brink of tears, as well. "Jaiden, you were my first real friend... I don't want to leave you after only my third night knowing you." I said, biting back my many tears. After saying that, though, I just couldn't hold them back, and I simply closed my eyes and let them stream down my cheeks. After a moment, light made me open my eyes. Jaiden was holding out a small green pearl, that glowed like a full moon. Its green light shown on Rufus, showing the steady trickle of tears running down his face. "That'sss hisss pearl, Rossse." he said in a scratchy voice. I looked down at the green ender pearl that Jaiden was holding weakly out to me. He made another gentle gurgle. "He wantsss you to keep it." Rufus said with a sniff.

I looked into Jaiden's eyes. They were dull, but sadly smiling, anyway. I managed to put on a painful smile as well, as I gently took the pearl from his hand. "Thank you, Jaiden." I said in a warm tone. Jaiden nodded, his eyes still smiling. Then, his eyes closed, and tears squeezed out of each one, burning the black skin as they rolled down his cheeks. But he didn't even flinch. He was already gone.

I couldn't believe it for a moment. How could he be gone? I clutched the pearl to my chest, and slumped over his body, crying maybe even harder than I had when my parents had never turned up. Rufus came closer to my side. "I'm sssorry, Rose," He said. "I know how much of a friend he wasss to you." I sniffed. "He was. I only knew him for a little while, yet it felt like it could have been forever." I cried. I picked up Jaiden's hand after a moment, and tried to put the pearl back in it, imagining that it might bring him back to life. I knew it wouldn't though. There was nothing ever recorded in history about bringing life back to bodies. It just made me cry harder when I thought about that. Now I'd have to be alone, again.

Rufus might as well have read my thoughts. "If you want... I can come ssstay with you at your houssse. Jaiden mentioned to me that you live alone." I raised my head a bit, and smiled. "Sure, Rufus. That would be great. Thank you." He smiled. "No problem, Rossse. I don't have any family either. But creepers don't really think about that kind of thing. As long as we have friends."

Me and Rufus now live in my little house together, and we keep each other company each day. He's trying his hardest to make a transition from being nocturnal to staying awake with me in the daytime. We go out and relax on the roof together, we take walks by the lake, and sometimes just stay at home and talk. Since that night we met, I've never used my sword for fighting mobs again.

And as for the pearl, it has a spot on my front window sill, where I look at it every day. I'll never forget that one amazing enderman who gave his life just to save me, one little girl he barely knew. And that kind of act really has to come from a pure heart. In old stories, endermen were said to have hearts as black as the night. But not Jaiden. That enderman had a heart of pure gold.


End file.
